


Without a Backup Plan

by Entwinedlove



Series: Marvelously Magical Bingo 2018 [24]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU - Repealed Statute of Secrecy, Coworkers - Freeform, F/M, Huddling For Warmth, Post-Avengers (2012), SHIELD, Slight UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 13:22:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16327064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entwinedlove/pseuds/Entwinedlove
Summary: Director Fury sends Hermione on a paranormal mission but when her magic fails her, she and her partner have to resort to the Muggle way of doing things. Not that she's complaining, really.





	Without a Backup Plan

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Marvelously Magical Bingo 2018; fills square **I4** – _Huddling for Warmth_
> 
> [ ](https://i.imgur.com/qdKdlCo.jpg)

Hermione was sitting at her desk in her new office in the Triskelion checking over the reports and requests submitted to her by the few other Magical agents in her department when her phone beeped a notification for an incoming mission briefing. She pulled up the same information on the computer in front of her and started looking it over.

She didn't get through much of the first page before she was getting a video call from Director Fury. "Granger," she answered. "You're sending me to South Carolina?"

"I see you've already started reading, good. There's something strange going on. I'd like you to take a look at it."

"Am I getting a partner on this?"

"Yes, actually. Rogers."

Hermione's brow furrowed, "Rogers? Really? Are you expecting me to need a lot of muscle for this?"

"No but he's expressed an interest, so I thought I'd indulge him."

She wasn't sure if Nick meant Steve had wanted to work with her again or if he was interested in the more paranormal cases rather than the punch-and-shoot or infiltration sort of work that Rumlow and Romanoff did.

"Is he on the premises?"

"No, you'll have to coordinate with him. I've already sent him the briefing."

"Great. Is Quinjet Charlie-2500-Tango available?"

Fury quirked a brow. "You've requested that one before. You attached to it or something?"

"It's had the most anti-magical interference added to it so the power doesn't flicker while I'm piloting."

He nodded. "Right. I'll make sure it's available."

"Thanks." She closed the video connection and clicked back to her briefing to read through it before reaching out to Steve. When she was done, she grabbed her purse and headed upstairs to the atrium to Disapparate home so she could pack. It looked like it would be an overnight trip. On the walk upstairs, she sent a text to Steve, touching base with him and advising him to do the same.

An hour later, as she was finishing up the pre-flight checks on the Quinjet, Steve rang her.

"So, I was looking over the map of the state park we're going to and it doesn't look like there's much of a great place to land the jet," he said. There was a leading tone to his voice and she wondered what he was going to suggest.

"There's a helipad in Brevard, about twenty-five minutes off. I figured we can land there and hire a car."

"I was thinking... I mean, it's an overnight mission anyway, why don't we take my motorcycle?"

Hermione's eyebrows raised. The thought had merit. She hated hiring a car. "That sounds do-able."

"Great. How about we land in Asheville somewhere, make the ride down worth it?"

She turned and pulled up the navigation system on the Quinjet, zeroing in on the state park. "That's an hour away from our destination, though."

"Like I said, make the ride worth it."

She wondered if he was taking this mission less seriously because it wasn't one of those punch-and-shoot types. She supposed she could indulge him a little. "I... yes, we can do that."

"Great," he said again and then she heard the unmistakable sound of a motorbike roaring closer outside of the jet. She ended the call and stepped down the loading door to see Steve pull the bike to a stop.

"You were going to bring it even if I'd said no?" She asked when he cut the engine and stepped off to walk it up the loading door.

He shrugged. "I figured I might be able to talk you into it." He strapped the bike down for travel safety and set his rucksack and shield against the wall next to her small bag.

She took a deep breath and nodded to herself. This would be fine. She pressed the button to close the loading door and headed back to the cockpit.

Once they were in the air and headed south, Steve started up the conversation. "I was under the impression that you didn't go out on missions that much."

"I'm the Department Head for the division of magical agents, yes, but that doesn't mean I don't go on missions."

"You seem pretty young to be a department leader." He said, leaning back in his seat.

She flicked the mechanism on her seat to allow her to swivel to face him. "I was the first Magical agent hired at SHIELD, twelve years ago. I've got seniority. Besides, I'm older than you."

He snorted in amusement. "Excuse me? I'm ninety-four."

"Only according to your birth certificate. But you were frozen for sixty-six of those years. You didn't age during them. You're still only twenty-eight." She watched his face as she spoke, wondering if he was going to argue the point with her.

"You don't think I aged in the ice?"

"You weren't awake for it, right? If you were, you're handling insanity a lot better than I would." He shook his head and she continued, "When I was thirteen I was petrified—basically turned to stone—for twenty-three days. I wasn't awake. I didn't age."

"You were turned to stone? When you were thirteen?" He asked, incredulous.

"Oh, that was just one of the many near-death adventures I had in school."

"In school?" There was shock clear in his tone and wide-eyed expression.

She laughed. "Yes, in school. And out of. When we get back, I'll loan you my copy of Harry's biography. We had some... A lot happened during our school days."

"Harry? Right, you introduced me to him. You called him the saviour of the Wizarding World. Guess I didn't take that as straight as you meant it."

Hermione turned her chair to look back over the controls. "I received a SHIELD recruitment letter two months after the end of our war." He let the topic drop and they slipped into the generic conversation they typically had over coffee. It usually consisted of him talking about some of the new things he'd learned.

When they landed the Quinjet, they combined her bag (with its Undetectable Extension Charm, of course) with his and Hermione clipped the straps of it around her shoulders. Steve then tied the shield to the straps of his rucksack. It made Hermione feel a little like an All-American turtle despite the stealth paint job on it. With the motorbike out and the Quinjet locked and set to stealth mode, it was time to go.

"No helmets?" she asked as she plaited her hair and tucked it into the collar of her leather jacket.

"Don't trust me?"

"I've ridden a dragon and an invisible, flying meat-eating horse. I think I can handle a motorbike."

"Meat-eating horse, huh?" He nodded. "All right." He kickstarted the bike and Hermione climbed on the back, letting her hands press flat against his stomach. The bike rumbled and vibrated underneath them as they rode. She tried not to watch the speedometer, though the few times she glanced at it she wished she hadn't. Enjoying speed, whether on a broomstick or a motorbike, seemed to be a universally male thing. By the time, Steve was signalling and turning into the state park, Hermione was ready to be off the bike. Her insides had been vibrated uncomfortably for three-quarters of an hour and her face was numb from the cold wind. Her fingers and every part of her that had been pressed tightly up against Steve was pleasantly warm, however.

Unfortunately, the vibrations had affected her ability to stand and when she stepped off the motorbike she almost fell over if it hadn't been for Steve's quick reflexes. "Sorry, I guess I should have warned you," he said, giving her a bashful grin. "And here I was hoping my ride was smoother than a dragon."

"Oh, it was much nicer than a dragon considering I don't like—"

A park ranger had just walked up to them and cleared his throat.

"—flying," she said, finishing her sentence. She started to pull her SHIELD badge from her pocket.

"Sir, ma'am, the park is closed for the time being," he said, tucking his hands into his belt and brandishing his overweight belly in front of him like he deserved an award for it, "and I'm going to have to ask you to—"

"Yes, I understand that," she said, with just as much condescension in her voice as his. "We're with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. We're here to look into the matter that caused you to close the park. If you'd be so kind as to point us in the right direction, we'll get out of your hair."

She could see Steve's face over the man's shoulder and she couldn't determine what he was feeling from his pursed lips and clenched jaw.

The park ranger, however, was looking over her badge with a frown. "You're here to fix whatever them kids done magicked up with the trail then?"

She could hear the disdain for magic in his tone and forced a smile onto her face. "Yes, we're here to fix it."

"Good," he said, handing back her badge. "The weirdness starts just past the Devil's Kitchen." He pointed to some vague spot over her right shoulder."I'm fixing to close up shop for the night and head home, so unless you need somethin' from the shop..."

"No, I believe we have everything we need."

"All right then." He turned and nodded at Steve before strolling towards the log cabin office and gift shop.

When he was out of earshot, Hermione quirked her eyebrows at Steve, hoping he'd indulge her. "That tone and how you handled him. Did you get that directly from Peggy?"

She chuckled. "Maybe? How is she? I think you've visited more recently than I have," she said, turning to head in the direction of their destination.

She could just see him in her periphery as he looked down and his smile faded.

Before he could actually answer, she gave him an out. "I know. It's hard to talk about. So... the Devil's Kitchen! What do you think the devil likes to eat?"

"Let's hope it's something innocuous," he answered. As they approached the painted wooden sign with the name carved into it, Steve put his hand on her shoulder. "Let me get my shield from you." She stopped and waited for the weight of it to be removed from the bag where he'd tied it. "Should I lead?"

"I don't know, it's narrow. You might get stuck."

"Haha," he responded. She could almost hear him rolling his eyes at her as she descended the stairs.

The stairs heading down the narrow gap in the rock were metal, an upgrade from the wooden ones in the reference pictures in the briefing. They were steep and by the time she got to the bottom and the sharp ninety-degree turn in the rock it was very dark in front of her.

She lit her wand and held it out in front of her as she continued on the path. The briefing had reported dozens of people complaining about seeing strange sights, a general feeling of unease where previously there hadn't been one, and an unseasonable coldness. She turned once to get a glimpse of Steve, and although his shoulders were broad, he slipped through the passage just fine. After the main attraction of the Devil's Kitchen—that narrow, sharply turned path in solid rock—it transitioned into a simple dirt path that led along the side of a copse of trees before forking into different directions. The left went across a wooden boardwalk to an overlook, the right to a hiking trail that wound down through the trees.

She turned right and Steve followed. "Now that we're in the open, let me lead."

"Sure," she said, stepping to the side to allow him to move ahead of her. Hermione wasn't sure what to expect from the vague descriptions given in the briefing but she was looking out for anything as they followed the trail.

Night was falling as they moved through the woods and nothing seemed to catch Hermione's attention as paranormal. She was starting to feel the itchy feeling along her neck that something wasn't right but she couldn't pinpoint a source nor could she determine what exactly was causing it.

Something like being watched?

She felt something come down on her shoulder, like some weighty hand. She turned and in the twilight saw tall humanoid figures with sharp-clawed fingers. She must have shouted as she spun in a circle, unsure of what spell to cast to protect herself.

"Hermione!" Steve's voice said from farther up the trail. She couldn't see him any longer and the more she spun to try and get away from the shadowy figures around her, the more she lost track of where he was in comparison to her. This time when something touched her shoulders, two heavy hands locking her in place, it was accompanied by Steve's voice next to her ear. "You're fine, there's... wait, close your eyes."

"What?" she said, blinking rapidly but trusting him. She closed her eyes. The terrifying feeling of being watched and being surrounded didn't fade but Steve was right next to her. He wouldn't let the creatures get to her. "There're human-like creatures in the woods, they're going to attack us!"

"Shush, you're safe. I think you're hallucinating. The only things around us are trees. Oak trees that look like they've been painted black. There's something in the air. Can you smell it?" He gave her a moment to breathe deeply. "The metallic taste to it?"

She nodded and opened her eyes to look at him. What she expected to see—Steve and black trees—was not what she saw. Steve was there but elongated and taller than Hagrid, an army of slender, shadowy figures at his back with red gleaming eyes just waiting for her. She whimpered and closed her eyes.

"Are they not..." she started to say and shook her head, she knew the shadows were just trees. "Is the hallucinogen not affecting you?"

"I'm seeing a little bit of something out the corner of my eyes but I think my system's metabolizing it too fast. Can you conjure a gas mask?"

"A gas mask..." her mind was blank. She couldn't think. "I don't know. I'd have to look it up. I don't know a spell that'll do it, I don't know how they work and—"

"Hermione!" he said over her as he squeezed lightly at her upper arms, "Is there a spell that does the same thing? Something that will filter the air for you?"

"Oh! Yes!" She immediately pointed her wand and her face and cast a Bubble-Head Charm. The smell in the air changed instantly, leaving only the metallic taste still coating her tongue. She gave it a few moments to work and then opened her eyes. Steve looked normal but very close. It took a second longer to realise he was sharing the Bubble-Head Charm with her. His breath was wet and warm as it ghosted over her lips.

"Are you okay?" he asked. In the light of her wand, she could see the concern in his blue eyes.

"Yes. I—" she glanced past him to the trees, normal, spindly baby oak trees, painted a simple flat black across their trunks. She swallowed and nodded lightly. "Here," she took a step back, pulling her bubble of clean air away from him and casting the charm at his face so he needn't be so close to her. She looked around and didn't recognise any part of the trail they were on. "Did I venture off the path?"

"Not really, it just gets very thick here." He pointed past the black trees, "It heads off in that direction. Right before you screamed I had noticed the smell so I think it's getting stronger as we go."

"Okay," she said. "Then I guess we need to go that way."

He didn't move away from her as they walked and she wondered whether it was because she had the only torch or if he was worried for her. She was worried for herself. What if she had decided to cast something like the Fire-Making Charm and set the woods on fire? What would have happened if the hallucinogen had affected Steve?

She tried not to let her mind spiral through the what-ifs as she led them deeper along the trail. As they wound deeper into the woods, Hermione's fingers started to go numb. The chill in the air had turned much colder once the sun had gone down. She was thankful for the leather of her jacket and the thick socks she wore in her boots.

Steve squeezed her shoulder lightly and she paused. "There," he said, pointing over her shoulder towards a dark chasm that looked like another narrow passage of rock. "Do you feel the temperature difference? It's coming from there."

"A cave? I didn't think there were caves in this area. There was nothing in the briefing."

She felt him shrug beside her. He dug through the rucksack on her back and he pulled out an electric torch. "I'll lead again, I guess." He took a few steps and then stepped back twice, almost on top of her. "What the—"

Hermione had moved up next to him and flinched. The metallic smell was back and her wandlight was out. "What's going on?" She flicked her wand to reignite the _Lumos_ but nothing happened. She looked at Steve and then reached up and patted her own cheek. The Bubble-Head Charms were gone. "Magical dead zone," she said, trying to breathe shallowly even as she started to see black spots at the edges of her vision. "I'm useless," she said, tucking her wand away.

"Highly unlikely," he said. "Come on, the quicker we go through, hopefully, the quicker we find the source of the hallucinogen." He led the way through the narrow passage of rock and the sharp turn it made. Inside, the cavern didn't immediately open back up. Instead, it seemed to almost narrow further and even Hermione had to turn sideways to squeeze through. There was a machine hum that seemed to be coming from within. She stuck close to Steve since he had the only light source now. After worming their way through several more craggy spots the cave widened. They walked around a large wall of rock to find a dark pool of water. Thirty feet above the surface of the water there was a ledge. On the ledge was a machine, humming and occasionally chiming. There were levers and polished brass knobs and large glass canisters.

"Well, that's probably the source of the hallucinogen in the air," Steve said, looking up at it. "Do you think it's also causing the cold and the magical dead zone?" He looked at her. She focused on his face in the darkness and tried very hard not to notice the black swirling figures in her periphery.

"I don't know. The dead zone may just be a geological feature and whoever set up the machine up there just used it to their advantage." She glanced around in the dim light of his torch, "There's got to be a rope or something..." There looked to be a wider section on the other side of the wall that might lead up to the ledge. She skirted all the way around the edge of the small underground pond until she was on the other side of the wall from where they'd entered. She found what she was looking for. A knotted rope dangling from the upper ledge. She grabbed the rope and tugged it. It felt sturdy enough. She started climbing it. Two-thirds of the way up she realized that the rope went through a hole worn through the rock. She felt the rope move below her and called down to Steve. "It gets really narrow up here, I really don't think your shoulders would fit."

"Do you think you can turn the machine off?"

"I'm going to try," she answered. She tried to squeeze through the hole but realized their rucksack was catching. "Here, I'm going to drop the rucksack, it won't fit through with me." She unclipped it from her shoulders and let it slip off and drop. She heard him catch it below her. She shimmied through the hole and pulled herself to the top of the ledge. The machine was larger and noisier up close and the light from Steve's torch below wasn't very helpful.

After studying what she could of the machine for a few moments she finally started piecing together what she was seeing. The levers and knobs on the other side seemed to be decorative and hidden behind a Fresnel lens were tubes connected to the tops of the glass canisters. She located the nozzles on them and turned them off. The machine seemed to cough and she searched quickly to find a power switch. Before she could, it shuddered so violently she could feel the rock under her feet shifting and there was a horrible groaning noise.

"Hermione!" Steve called seconds before the ledge broke from the side of the rock it was on. Hermione, the machine, and all the rock tumbled down into the pond below. She gasped and swallowed water, choking on it as she thrashed to the surface. The water was freezing. The black spots in her vision swam larger and in the cold and the dark she felt like there was a tentacled monster grabbing at her limbs to pull her down into the surprisingly deep water.

She felt her body get jerked out of the water by her jacket collar and soon she was on the bank of the pond, coughing and gasping. The metallic taste to the air had dissipated but it was exponentially colder than it had been. When she finally got her breath somewhat back—she was still shivering something awful—She felt Steve kneeling at her side.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said through her chattering teeth.

"The ledge collapsing caused a lot of damage. It doesn't look like we'll be getting out the same way we got in."

"We'll just have to find another way out," she said. She sat up and surveyed the damage. The machine was broken in the water and whatever chemical or potion it had been pumping into the nearby air had stopped. The water was frozen over completely and the cold that radiated from it was enough to cause her soaked clothes to get crunchy from frost and ice. "Whoever set this up is a jerk," she mumbled as she shivered. She reached out towards the rucksack at Steve's side with a trembling hand but stopped with her hand on top of the bag. "Fuck."

"What?" Steve asked.

"I had a change of clothes in my bag."

"And?"

"And my bag utilizes magic. I won't be able to get anything—food, water, potions, camping gear, or clothes—out of it while we're down here."

"Are you sure we're still in the dead zone?"

She nodded. "It's an odd tugging sensation, like a low-powered vacuum pulling under my skin." She pulled her wand out and flicked it, " _Lumos!_ " Light did not shine from the tip, just as she suspected. She stowed her wand away though it took several tries for her hands to work properly to slide it into the mechanism at her wrist.

"Well, we need to get out of these wet, icy clothes." He pulled the rucksack away from her lap and went about making a crude camp, finding a relatively flat spot and setting out a sleeping bag. He looked back up at her as he started taking his jacket off. "Get undressed, Hermione."

She blinked stupidly at him for several seconds before she realized what he was proposing. "I... I mean, you don't—"

"And let you suffer from hypothermia when you don't have to? I don't think so." He finished unbuttoning his own wet overshirt and pulled off his undershirt before she even started working on her layers. She was able to get down to her bra and was having a difficult time getting her fingers to work on the fastener of her drenched pants when she felt hot fingers helping her along. "Are your undergarments wet too?" he asked. His voice had gone softer, like removing their clothes, even for survival, was an intimate act. She swallowed and nodded. He helped her crawl over to the sleeping bag before he removed his shoes and trousers. He crawled in the bag first and then held the flap open for her to follow.

She turned off the electric torch and waited a few moments to see if her eyes would adjust to the darkness. After a few measured but shivery breaths they did. She removed the last of her wet clothes and slipped inside the space he'd made for her. He drew in a hissed breath when she pressed against him but then zipped the bag up around them as much as he could. He pulled her a little closer and she reached up and pulled her wet plait out from between them. She breathed out a shuddering sigh and her whole body shivered against his. His breath was warm at the back of her neck. "I've got a few MREs for later. I figure we should probably wait for morning to try and find our way out. That all right with you?"

She nodded and snuggled back closer into his hot skin.

A minute or so later, he whispered in her ear again. "You might as well put your cold feet on me, you'll never stop shivering if you don't."

She released the breath she'd been holding with a soft chuckle and slid her feet further back in the sleeping bag to press against his shins. She expected him to comment about how icy they felt but he didn't.

Warmth seeped into her skin fairly quickly but sleep crept up on her in increments.

When she woke up, she had somehow spun in the sleeping bag so that she was facing Steve. She opened her eyes and felt a burst of happiness when early morning sunlight illuminated the cave. It lit his face and she could admire the length of his eyelashes and the slight asymmetry of his nose. He opened bright blue eyes and met her gaze. "Good morning," he whispered.

"Morning."

"Are you warm, now?"

She nodded. She watched as his gaze moved over her face and held her breath when his focus paused at her lips. Her heartbeat seemed loud in her ears as it thumped along with his. And then his stomach rumbled. Loudly.

She giggled and he cracked a grin. "I'm hungry. Let's break into those MREs and then see about getting out of here. Now that the source of the hallucinogen is stopped, it's time to head back home, right?"

"Yes," she said, pulling her very warm and slightly sweaty torso away from his. She could feel her nipples already starting to harden as she pulled away from the heat of his body. He pulled the zipper of the sleeping bag down. She scooted out, and turned, hoping not to flash him too much before reaching towards her clothes. They were still wet and cold but the ice crystals that had formed on them were gone. Once she'd covered herself again she looked up at the pond. It had melted overnight as the potion in the canisters had settled on the bottom. "I'll have to send another team down here to recover what they can. All of my sampling and recovery equipment is in my bag." She waited for the sound of his clothes to stop rustling before she turned back around.

After breakfast, Steve repacked the rucksack and retied his shield to it. He clipped it on his own shoulders this time. "Since the sunlight is coming from there," he said pointing in the direction towards the back of the cavern where they hadn't ventured the night before, "I say we start there. How do you feel about bouldering? You want to go first or would you rather I do it?"

She raised her hand in a gesture suggesting he proceed her and so he did. She was sure he was showing off at least a little when he jumped straight up and caught a narrow hold and then started manoeuvring his way towards the incoming sunlight. She watched and waited for several minutes as he got higher up before she started looking for holds she could reach.

It took over an hour for them to reach the top and by the time they did, the tugging sensation under Hermione's skin had faded. The hole where the sunlight was entering the cave was small but she pointed her wand at it and cleared small bits of rock a little at a time until they were able to squeeze through. Once they were out, Hermione pulled out her mobile phone and documented the location of the entrance, already sending the pertinent information to Director Fury for debriefing. Of course, when they got back to DC she'd have to work up a full report. They made the hike back to Steve's motorbike shortly thereafter and changed into fresh clothes in the restrooms near the office. A different park ranger was on duty and Steve was detailing the non-classified parts of what they'd found. The ranger was blinking up at Steve in star-struck awe and Hermione doubted he was taking in a single word that Steve was telling him.

Finally, Hermione stepped in and hinted that they needed to get back on the road. As they were walking back to the motorbike, Steve grinned at her and asked, "How about after our leisurely ride through the fall foliage, we stop for lunch before we fly back home?" There was a different tone to his question than any of the other times he'd suggested they meet for lunch or coffee in the last year.

She stopped and turned back to him, detailing his body language. "Are you asking me on a date, Captain Rogers?"

He glanced down and she was shocked to see the barest hint of pink flush across his cheeks. "Yeah, I am. So how about it?"

She smiled widely at him. "Yes. I think I'd like that."

The ride back to the Quinjet, past all the colourful autumn foliage, was beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> I've only briefly visited the state park and Devil's Kitchen. I have no idea what's off the wooden boardwalk, everything beyond the parking lot and the wooden boardwalk is made up. No offence is meant for any employees of the state park, either. I only chose this particular place because I'm nominally familiar with it and I wanted some of my favourite characters to visit my state.


End file.
